Veggie Shares for the Week of August 25th!

This week's share includes salad greens, italian eggplant, peppers and tomatoes from Pitchfork Farm, cucumber from Screamin' Ridge Farm, leeks and tomatoes from Arethusa Collective Farm and celery and sweet corn from Maplewood Organics! In addition, the fruit shares this week are incredible with raspberries, yellow watermelon, asian plums and the first local apples of the season!!

Enjoy!

Veggie Share for the Week of August 18th!

This week's share includes mesclun greens and tomatoes from Pitchfork Farm, yellow squash and cherry tomatoes from Screamin' Ridge Farm, carrots from Arethusa Farm, onions and potatoes from Rockville Market Farm, sweet corn from Maplewood Organics and an herb bunch from Sugarsnap Farm. This is the first large harvest of sweet corn so expect more in the coming weeks! And if the sun stays out, then we should also see a lot more tomatoes and peppers coming your way!

Don't forget that this Wednesday, August 20th is the last day to pre-order local beef through the Food Basket and Maplewood Organics. To place an order, contact Mandy Davis at mandy@intervale.org.

As always, I hope you enjoy this week's share and please offer any feedback you may have. It will help we look for ways to improve this program for next year!

Enjoy!

Veggies Shares for the Week of August 11th!

Despite the rainy weather, this weeks share provides a wide variety of local produce including mesclun greens and peppers from Pitchfork Farm, cucumber and cherry tomatoes from Screamin' Ridge Farm, beets, carrots, italian parsley and tomates from Arethusa Farm and potatoes from Rockville Market Farm.

The fruit share this week will include watermelon (yeah!) from Intervale Community Farm and black currant jam from the Farm Between.

Enjoy!

Farmer Appreciation Night

Last night was a rainy, mosquitoey fun time at the Calkins Barn! Thanks for everyone who came out to honor farmers.


Here are Travis, Director of Agricultural Development Services, and Glenn, the Intervale Center's new Executive Director, waiting to speak


Katie Fiore of Sugarsnap provided delicious pickle samples to go with her pickling demonstration.

Vermont Soy was a big hit with young and old alike.

Here Mandy displays the "Farmer Appreciation" supplies. Mark thought of this great idea. You can read the love and thank you notes we collected from partiers, who were eager to express their admiration for Vermont's family farmers, here!

LOVE LETTERS, PRAISE AND THANKS
TO VERMONT FARMERS - AUGUST 7, 2008

[Thank you, farmers, for] teaching me to reflect, life and death, and how it feeds me.

Thanks for all you do to provide us with wonderful food. Keep playing in the dirt!

Dear Farmers, You are wonderful. Thank you for feeding me and feeding the earth. All my love, Kristin

I love Eric Seitz’s veggies and him.

Thanks for making the stuff of life so tasty.

Thank you for your hard work that’s needed to grow fresh, local food.

My wife and I volunteer at Arethusa Farm and I just love getting in touch with the process of growing our food and the devotion of the people who grow it. So many of us take so much for granted – like abundant food.

Bless the farmers! Davis Bernstein

Is organic always a good choice?

How can I see the benefits of buying local? We LOVE you!

Dear Rob Rock, Thanks for growing veg’s. Tucker

Steady, safe, and fresh food source. True American Values

Dear Adam and his berries – I have so much gratitude for the pies, crumbles and cobblers that grew in your fields!

There is nothing like knowing where your food comes from and by whom it is grown.

I believe the Intervale and all the people who work for the foundation and farm the fields are a great an attribute as the lake in defining the greatness of Burlington. Thanks so much! K. Rossman

I appreciate the lights I see on once again in all the old barns that have stood empty for so long. I appreciate the now thousands that are rekindling our lands. And bringing sanity to our community once again. I appreciate all the folks who are not afraid of toiling with physical labors, I am proud to live in Vermont where so many folks understand the values it will take to survive. Greg G.

Thanks for feeding my family!!

I have great respect for farmers. I used to romanticize it but I now have a clearer picture of the incredible hard work involved in farming. It is such a privilege to live in a place where we can have a direct connection to our food – a place where my son can grow up knowing where peas-beets-herbs come from and where I can feel both proud of and confident about the food we eat. Thank you so much, farmers!

Susan, Jorg and Lukas

My first “involved” experience of a farm was as a WWOOFer in New Zealand. Sarah kept her farm garden viable while also engaged in two other lines of work. She was/is a study/”can do” woman and graced us with wondrous produce-based meals! Patti

Fresh veggies and fruit

Healthy options

I worked at a zoo for the past year and we were so reliant on our farmers (especially local farmers) to provide for the animals. Two brothers in the 60’s supplied all the hay (timothy and alfalfa) for the zoo – and considering our elephants alone ate 300 lbs a day – we needed them to fill us up often. Last fall one of the brothers passed away and the whole zoo was in mourning. This spring when a baby rhino was born we planned on calling it Howard after him if it was a boy – since it was a girl, we named her Clover, but her middle name is Hasley which was Howard’s last name. We love our farmers at the Buffalo Zoo.

Farmers do all the hard work that makes the veggies. They will grow our fuel in the future. They have cool tan lines.

Farmers grow everything I eat, wear and smoke. And they usually have hot daughters!

Essex Farm, Essex, NY
(Mark and Kristen Kimball)
Thank you for truly sustainable farming, including draft horses, for asparagus to raw milk to yogurt to beef to beets. Kim and Don

Dear Farmers of the Intervale,
Thank you so much for your hard work and low prices! Farming is a future aspiration of mine and maybe one day I’ll be able to work with you more closely. If not, then in solidarity. Love, Steve

Dear Farmers,
I admire you for creating food and a beautiful space for many people to enjoy. I hope to work on a farm for the fall, which will give me the opportunity hopefully to meat some of you. Thank you! Lauren Armstrong

I love all the farmers (especially S’ra) XOXO

Thank you for filling my belly with good food and my heart with song!

I appreciate farmers for helping out our pollinators! And the local food.

Thanks for growing things I can’t seem to successfully grow myself – those tomatoes are so picky! But they sure are tasty…

Farmers, you are amazing. Wendell Berry said that agriculture is the basis of culture, and I truly appreciate the kind of culture that is nourished by good, clean, local, organic food, the kind of food the farmers in the intervale and throughout Vermont bring to market everyday. I hope that this culture can one day also be the kind that fully supports and appreciates the people who feed us. Thank you!

Thank you for coming, and thank you, farmers! Cheers! Sona and Mandy

Tomorrow: Farmer Appreciation Night

Farmers feed us all, and we at Agricultural Development Services are mightily appreciative. Come by the Intervale Center tomorrow for a great Thursdays at the Intervale event that celebrates the hardwork and dedication of the family farmers with whom we have the privilege to work. The evening starts at 5:30 pm and will include free American flatbread, plus beer, sausages and more! Pickling demo at 5:30 by Sugarsnap Farm. Music starts at 6:30 pm.

Thank you, farmers and bringers of food!
Thank you, plants, animals, rocks, rain, wind, sun and soil!

Veggie Shares for the First Week of August!

This week's veggie share includes kale and eggplant from Arethusa Farm, tomatoes and carrots from the Intervale Community Farm, cucumber from Open Heart Farm, bunched beets and potatoes from Bloomfield Farm and herbs from Sugarsnap Farm. Despite all the wet weather, we are beginning to see some diversity in the veggie shares. Hopefully, the next week brings some dry weather and lots of sunshine to help ripen those tomatoes!

Also, the fruit share this week includes black currants from The Farm Between in Cambridge, VT. Black currants are a real treat and are especially great for baking muffins and other pastries and for creating a sauce or coulis to go with either a meat dish or dessert. And for all you winemakers...black currants are incredible for creating a port-style dessert wine. In fact, The Farm Between sell their currants to the Boyden Valley Winery who make an amazing Cassis! http://www.boydenvalley.com/Cassis.html

Finally, I wanted to remind you all of the maple syrup special from Dragonfly Sugarworks. Let us know by August 6th if you are interested in placing an order. Also, we hope to offer more add ons in the coming months so let me know if there is anything in particular that you would like to be offered!

Here's to another week of great local eats!